Here We Go!

Last Thursday I met with the owners of the historic Bailey Country Store to negotiate an agreement to lease the building.  I went to the meeting wearing my guns on the outside (figuratively speaking, of course) because I didn't know them, nor could I predict how difficult the meeting might become.  Within the first five minutes I realized once again that God has been behind this project from the get go, because the owners are both strong Christians who are very excited about the Journey Church being the new occupants of the store.  We sealed the deal within 30 minutes, and spent the next hour-and-a-half talking about the Lord, and what He's doing in Bailey, and how this project could help to revitalize the whole town.  It was an amazing conversation, and God's handwriting is everywhere we look.  Since reaching a verbal agreement on the Country Store, I've been busy connecting with local business owners to begin building a friendship and to tell them about our plans to re-open the grocery store.  Across the board their enthusiasm is contagious.

Bailey Bigfoot
On a side note, near the end of our conversation the wife mentioned (I don't remember why, actually) that Bailey has gotten some media attention recently due to several significant sightings of Bigfoot - yes, I said it - Bigfoot.  At the end of May two women were out walking in the forest on the outskirts of town at dusk, and a cracking branch drew their attention to one side.  They both watched in disbelief as an enormous, hairy (somewhere around 7 ft tall)  bi-pedal figure ran down the hillside about 100 yds from them at superhuman speed, and disappeared into the trees.  They could both clearly see it, and they can even describe the color of the hair.  I am planning to meet one of the women later this week to hear her story for myself, but when Lynn shared this with me last week I laughed out-loud; God really has a sense of humor, knowing that I am an avid Bigfoot enthusiast too.  I'd been trying to figure out what we could do to to make out coffee shop unique - something that would draw people into the store - and now I think I have it.  I spent last night with my brother John in Breckenridge, and this morning we played around with Photoshop and came up with the idea below.  I think it's hilarious, but that's just me.  We'll see if our launch team will buy it!